Disc drives are well-known in the industry. Disc drives are used to store digital information on rigid discs coated with a magnetizable material in a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks. Discs are mounted on a spindle motor which rotates the discs for operation. Information is read from or written to the disc surface via transducers carried on a slider supported relative to the disc surface via a suspension assembly.
The suspension assembly includes a load beam and a gimbal spring for supporting the slider. The gimbal spring flexibly couples the slider to the load beam. The lower surface of the slider defines an air bearing surface. Rotation of a disc via the spindle motor interacts with the air bearing surface of the slider to create a hydrodynamic lifting force to lift the slider to fly above the disc surface for reading information from and writing information to the disc surface. The gimbal spring supports the slider to allow the slider to pitch and roll relative to the disc surface for operation. The load beam supplies a preload force to counteract the hydrodynamic lifting force of the slider. The preload force supplied by the load beam and the hydrodynamic lifting force created by the air bearing surface and rotation of the disc define the fly characteristics of the slider (and transducer) above the disc surface for proximate recording.
The slider is positioned relative to various concentric data tracks via an actuator mechanism. The actuator mechanism typically includes an "E-block" assembly, which is rotationally coupled to a base of the disc drive to define a rotary-type actuator. The E-block includes a plurality of spaced actuator arms and is rotationally operated via an actuator drive under the control of electronic circuitry. In particular, the suspension assemblies supporting the sliders are coupled to actuator arms of an E-block in alignment with upper and lower surfaces of discs supported by the spindle motor.
The suspension assemblies are typically coupled to the actuator arms via a swaging technique. In particular, prior suspension assemblies have included tubular-shaped stakes having an opened central channel extending therethrough for swaging suspension assemblies to actuator arms. The outer dimension of the stake is sized for insertion into a hole extending through an actuator arm of the E-block. After the stake is inserted into the hole, the stake is swaged to the hole of the actuator arm via a swaging device to secure the suspension assembly to the actuator arm. The swaging device is inserted through the central channel in a direction co-axial with the load axis to impart a swaging force to deform the stakes against a wall of the hole. Since the swaging device operates co-axial to the load axis and supplies a force to the stakes elevated from the longitudinal plane of the suspension assembly, the swaging force may alter the preload force of the suspension assembly, thus affecting operation of the disc drive.
Disc drive capacity is increasing and certain forces imparted to the suspension assembly during assembly, such as that imparted by previous swaging techniques, may have a greater influence on the preload force of the suspension assembly and have a greater impact or influence on the fly characteristics of smaller and lighter suspension assemblies which are more easily deformable. Thus, it is desirable to couple suspension assemblies relative to the actuator block without significant influence to the pre-load characteristics of the suspension assembly. The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems, and offers other advantages over the prior art.